In line with du’s sustainability efforts and its vision to help build a cleaner and greener UAE, staff members volunteered with the Give a Ghaf Project on February 7th, 2018. The Give a Ghaf Project aims to raise awareness of the UAE’s national tree, the Ghaf, which has experienced a steady decline in recent years due to grazing, intensive lopping, and excessive groundwater extraction.

du's staff members have been volunteering with the Give a Ghaf Project since 2014, contributing hundreds of volunteer hours to assist Goumbook in their efforts to plant, grow, and maintain the desert-native Ghaf tree. Between 2015 and 2016, du volunteers contributed to the planting of more than 1,800 seedlings – one seed per employee – which have since been growing at Goumbook’s nursery and will eventually be replanted in schoolyards, residential communities, and open landscapes. This year, du employees assisted with re-planting, re-seeding, and re-tagging potted Ghafs at Goumbook’s nursery, as well as loading plants into trucks to be re-planted in various destinations.

The Ghaf tree is an indigenous species in the UAE, Oman, and Saudi Arabia. It is a drought-tolerant, evergreen tree that can withstand arid desert conditions and subsist on a very low water supply. The Ghaf tree has a variety of practical, medicinal, and conservational uses, but it is a threatened species in the region. Through its contributions to Ghaf conservation efforts, du is supporting Goumbook’s objective to preserve the UAE’s natural landscape and ecological heritage while raising awareness about the significance of the Ghaf and the threat of water scarcity.